Bored Ape crashes Ethereum, BTC becomes legal tender in CAR, EU stocks “flash crash” and Warren Buffett makes headlines

News from the crypto world

The last week has been problematic for major cryptocurrencies as the crypto market sentiment remained fearful for yet another week. The crypto market opened the new week slightly in the uptrend, but the Crypto Fear & Greed index is on the extreme fear level at 21/100, though there was a small improvement on Tuesday with 27/100. 

Bitcoin fell repeatedly to the €35k level over the weekend but is now slightly below €37k. Ethereum went under €2,600 over the weekend then managed to rise back to over €2,700 on Monday and it’s now slightly below that level. It was an uneventful week for Solana too, whose price is now recovering from a steep fall to €78 on Sunday, far from the €95 it reached on April 28. Terra is also recovering from its weekend fall to €73, with LUNA now hovering around €80. 

Bored Ape metaverse crashed Ethereum 

The metaverse Otherside by Yuga Lab, creator of the NFT collection Bored Apes Yacht Club, saw the first sale of virtual land on Saturday, raising $320M in crypto. However, the amount of requests that came in on the Ethereum blockchain, where the mint took place, was considerably larger than anticipated and didn’t only cause a record spike in Ethereum gas fees (up to $5k), but also crashed the Ethereum blockchain. 

This has been the largest NFT mint in history by several multiples, and yet the gas used during the mint shows that demand far exceeded anyone’s wildest expectations. The scale of this mint was so large that Etherscan crashed.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022

Following the incident, Yuga Labs apologised for the situation on Twitter and even suggested the ApeCoin DAO start considering a migration to their own chain. 

Central African Republic adopts Bitcoin as a legal tender

The Central African Republic has officially adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the second country in the world to do so after El Salvador and the first country in Africa. The news came shortly after the passing of a bill regulating crypto in the country, which was introduced by the minister of Digital Economy, Post and Telecommunications Justin Gourna Zacko.

Though it still not clear how Bitcoin will work alongside the Central African CFA franc (XAF) (the other national currency) Obed Namsio, the Chief of Staff for the President, seems very positive about developments and released an optimistic statement: 

“This move places the Central African Republic on the map of the world's boldest and most visionary countries”.

Don’t miss this week’s video recap!

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Starbucks (SBUX): May 3

• Uber (UBER): May 4

→ Find out about upcoming corporate actions on Bitpanda

Stock market performance

The week ended with mixed performances for the stock market. Major European indices closed mostly in the positive but the overall EU stock market plunged this Monday during what was called a “flash crash”. A reported error by a trader working for Citigroup, the US investment banking company, caused considerable losses to EU stocks, but many managed to close the day afloat. Major US indices closed in the red and saw relatively flat opening to the week but saw a number of spikes, with investors focusing on this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The Asian stock market recorded more mixed performances, with China still distressed by the coronavirus situation. 

Warren Buffett making headlines

Warren Buffett, American businessman and Berkshire Hathaway* CEO, has been making headlines the entire week - for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the investor is very set on his opinion about cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, so much so that he recently stated that he wouldn’t pay $25 for “all of the Bitcoin in the world”. 

A bold statement, however, Buffett was also in the spotlight for a recent buying spree, as Berkshire Hathaway has been accumulating many other companies’ shares during the first quarter of the year. The holding company now owns 9.5% of Activision Blizzard* shares and is the largest shareholder of Apple*, after buying $600M worth of the tech giant’s shares. 

Other headlines report that Buffett has been betting on oil companies: Occidental Petroleum* and Chevron* in particular. Berkshire Hathaway had to disclose its large position in Occidental Petroleum because the stake it bought was more than 10%, while its share in Chevron skyrocketed to 8.9% at the end of Q1 2022, from the 2% position it had held at the end of Q4 2021. 

Oil price fell amid weak economic growth in China

In recent times we have seen how the price of oil correlates to socioeconomic developments, particularly over the past few months. As Europe discusses further limitations on oil imports from Russia, while perhaps sparing some European countries strongly dependent on Russian oil from doing the same, the oil price fell at the beginning of the week. The price drop is reported to be related to worries that the difficult coronavirus situation in China might impact the country’s oil demand. Such an event could have a dramatic impact on future oil prices, since China is the world’s largest importer of oil. 

Check out the price developments of your favourite cryptocurrencies, stocks*, ETFs* and precious metals on our app for iOS and Android or on our web app. Check our blog and follow our social media channels to always be up to speed. Don’t forget to subscribe to the official Bitpanda youtube channel for our weekly recaps and video content. 

Disclaimer

This article does not constitute investment advice, nor is it an offer or invitation to purchase any digital assets. This article is for general purposes of information only and no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of this article or opinions contained herein. *Bitpanda Stocks are contracts replicating an underlying stock or ETF. More information and the PRIIPs key information document (KID) are available at bitpanda.com.